Stop lying about Assassin's Creed Unity's Notre Dame

Assassin's Creed Unity's model of Notre Dame did not help rebuild the cathedral after it caught fire in 2019. But a lot of people believe that it did. It's been repeated as fact across forums and videos, especially in the wake of an Assassin appearing in the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics in Paris. The idea is beautiful, but it's just wrong, and believing that Unity's Notre Dame could have helped restore the cathedral is a discredit to the game's creators and the people working to restore the cathedral. Polygon's Simone de Rochefort is here to walk you through how the rumor got started, and why it's wrong.

0:00 Assassin's Creed Unity can't rebuild Notre Dame
0:19 Where did the rumor come from?
1:26 What did Ubisoft do?
2:40 Who restored Notre Dame?
4:40 Why does this matter?

*IMPORTANT LINKS*

[HobbitTanoo]

this whole thing very much falls into the vein of discourse that insists that video games have some utilitarian use, that they are not 'just' entertainment/art. Let art exist for its own sake! It doesn't need a secret extra benefit to justify its existance!

[imallfordabulls]

I like how Ubisoft said “no” but people still ran with it

[wenscael]

Simone coming in here with the "I'm no longer asking" energy

[roenais]

i do love the ridiculousness of this story because it implies that ubisoft would have 3d scans and models of notre dame that NOBODY ELSE involved in notre dame has a better copy of. like could you imagine? 100s of historians and engineers dedicated to studying this monument and it's the videogame company that have the best records?

[kipper]

Yeah, everyone knows that the model of Notre Dame from the france world in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is the most accurate recreation available. If anything, they would use that to reconstruct it.

[IAMED]

Simone logging on to YouTube like "PER MY LAST EMAIL"

[Domi_Nique]

That's it, folks. Time to spread that they're using AC Syndicate to rebuild King's Cross station.

[goldie]

Simone is on a MISSION and I SALUTE YOU

[svenbtb]

Simone talking about something related to architecture always make me happy

[nathancarter]

This is something they've been doing for years. Even the original city of Rome was an artistic representation that's designed to feel like Rome more than look like it. This particularly annoys me because suddenly _Shadows_ is being held to a standard that didn't even exist in the first place! Let it be bad on its own terms!

[brev]

Minor correction, it's Vassar College, not "University." Thanks for making my alma mater sound more impressive, though.

[droidgeist]

Personally, I'll be disappointed if the Notre Dame restoration doesn't come out looking like the Temple of Doom in Indiana Jones...
Opportunity lost.

[TheRoland]

they are using Fallout 3 to rebuild Washington after January 6

[DanielB]

Wait, the rose window is copyrighted? It's 850 years old!

[kathylennerds]

It's weird to me that that is also the story of why they had an assassin's creed lookin person opening the Olympics?

[pedroberti]

"I always knew that this was false, but it's so cool that I still share on the internet." - some gaming news website, probably.

[meowhong]

I had Professor Tallon for a Medieval Architecture class and he lectured on the Medieval Art section of the intro to Art History class. I was wondering in the beginning if his work was going to be mentioned but I'm glad to see his work still being shared even after his death :')

[rionsanura]

SIMONE ARCHITECTURE RANT I'M SO EXCITED

[Aceedius]

I knew it wasn't true that their models would work for this purpose, but it seems I was still misinformed. The version of this story I remember hearing was that they had thrown themselves at the opportunity to _offer_ their models but got rejected because that wouldn't work. That seemed believable on the level of artless executives making promises that any of the artists could have told them they'll never be able to keep if they'd bothered to ask before speaking. But I guess that didn't happen either, huh.

[takemetoyonk]

Simone, you're wearing the coolest makeup in this video in case all of France watches this in a school auditorium together.
Also the "too many" sources comment was actually badass to me.